Happy Memories
by Palladion.x
Summary: Nanako is curious as to why only bad news is shown on TV, when all people want is to be happy.


**Author's Note:** Hello! This is the first work of fiction I ever ever written, and I am quite nervous about uploading it. Honestly I am not a writer. Writing is not something that I would say is a particular strength of mine. However after receiving some encouragement from a good friend of mine and an amazing author on this website, **Ari Moriarty**, I have decided to give it a go, so let's see what happens shall we.

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"And now for the six o' clock evening news, three people have died at a site of a car accident in the outskirts of Okina City. Four others, including one child have been taken to Okina Municipal hospital to be treated for injuries resulting from the crash, which involved a mini-van and two motorcycles. The exact cause of the crash is currently unknown but the police suspect that this is another outcome of the sudden increase in drunk driving we have been seeing in the area lately."

Nanako let out a large sigh, and turned towards her father who was sitting solemnly on the couch. She studied his face as the corners of his mouth turned downwards into a frown as the names of the dead were read out on the TV. She watched as he ran his hands over his face, and sighed.

"Dad, why do they only tell bad news on the TV?" Nanako asked. She had been wondering about this for a while now. Every night when she sat down to watch the news with her big bro and dad; she would wince as the anchor would explain the latest tragedy to fall upon the area. Just last week a school had been evacuated after a fire broke out in the canteen, a lot of children had to be rushed to the hospital that day with smoke damaged lungs.

"They just tell the news how it is Nanako, that's all there is to it."

"But why isn't there any good news?" she asked quietly. "Something good must happen in our area. Like yesterday, Izumi-sensei said that her boyfriend proposed to her, they're getting married! That's good news isn't it?"

"That is wonderful news Nanako, but it's not the news that people want to hear unfortunately." Dojima tried to explain, whilst raising an arm to scratch the back of his head. How exactly was he supposed to explain the workings of the world to a seven year old girl? Chisato had always been better at this sort of thing. He sighed and smiled sadly as he thought about his wife. How exactly would she have handled this situation?

"Well, I think they should tell happy news, it would give people something to smile about, maybe if they stopped telling everyone bad news, people wouldn't be so sad all the time."

"What makes you think people are unhappy all the time Nanako?" Dojima frowned, staring at his daughter as she shifted uncomfortably on her cushion as she turned her body to face him properly.

"I see it, on your face and on big bro's face; every night when we watch TV together you look sad. I don't like it!" Dojima turned to look at his nephew who had still been staring intently at the TV up until this point. He gestured to Yu for some sort of help in explaining the situation, he wasn't sure exactly how to deal with this.

Yu stared in slight disbelief at Nanako; small tears were starting to form in the corners of her eyes as she thought about her family being unhappy. He was completely unsure how to answer this as well, how to explain that he and Dojima weren't sad all the time, it's just that Dojima had a lot to deal with at work and that he was tired from school and exploring the TV world all afternoon, so home was a place where they didn't have to worry about putting on an act. Home was where they could both let their guard down and be emotional, rather than having to keep it all on the inside. Yu understood more than most that keeping emotions hidden on the inside only led to bad situations, but he wasn't about to explain how it was he knew this to his uncle or to Nanako.

Nanako sighed again and hung her head, staring at the floor. "I think that we are told so much bad news by the TV that a lot of people have forgotten that there is a lot to be happy about." She mumbled, more tears forming in her eyes as she tried to remember the last time she had seen all the members of her family smiling together.

Yu shifted to move closer to his little cousin and wrapped his arms around her in a gesture of comfort as the tears in her eyes started to slowly trickle down her cheeks. He pulled out a tissue from his pocket and handed it to her, as she continued to sob quietly.

"You are completely right Nanako," Yu started. "We do hear too much bad news, so how about we turn the TV off for a while and we can share happy stories and memories with each other?"

"That's a good idea," said Dojima as he moved off the sofa to sit next to Nanako on the floor. "Why don't you tell your big brother all about the time when you and your mum found the family of kittens under our house?"

Nanako gave a small smile, she remembered that day vividly, her mum had picked her up from school and just as they were walking through the door they heard a small meowing sound coming from the side of the house. Upon walking round to the garden and peering under the decking behind the house, she had been overjoyed to find three adorable small kittens curled up together.

"Dad wouldn't let us keep them, he said that we didn't have enough space, and we weren't at home long enough to look after them properly. But mum said we could have them for a little while, just until they had grown up a bit more and gotten healthy again." Nanako was now smiling enthusiastically, fully engrossed in telling the story. "I remember the next morning, I woke up and heard dad shouting, the kittens had all gotten on his bed and had curled up around his pillow, it was really funny!" She laughed.

"Yeah, I woke up to a face full of fur and one cat was even licking my nose!" Dojima exclaimed grinning at the memory of his daughter and wife, who had offered no help, instead choosing to giggle at his misfortune.

Yu let out a hearty laugh, imagining a grumpy Dojima in bed with kittens all around his face. It was a sight he wished he had been able to see.

Nanako smiled again looking at first to her dad and seeing the wide grin that was plastered all over his face as he continued to tell the story to Yu. Then she turned to look at her cousin who was still laughing at the antics being described. She found it amazing that just a few minutes ago they had all been sad, and now here they were, all laughing together. This, thought Nanako, should happen every night, and she made a point to tell them both everything good that happened to her at school from now on. She wanted to see them smile more often.

~ Fin


End file.
